A court in Georgia has ordered a five-day pretrial detention of a woman which desecrated religious image depicting Soviet leader Joseph Stalinan act which had sparked major protests in the capital Tbilisi, local media reported today.

The Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia, which has taken over the defense of the woman, Nata Perandze, could not immediately respond to a phone call, but told the Georgian news agency InterPressNews that the woman in question was jailed on charges of hooliganism, which is an administrative offense. .

The news agency did not say what line the lawyers taking on her defense took.

In mid-January, a demonstration was held by thousands of Georgians demanding severe punishment for Perantze, who was accused of throwing blue paint on the icon placed in the Holy Trinity Church in Tbilisi in an act of protest.

A side panel of the image includes a depiction of Georgian-born Joseph Stalin—an avowed atheist who violently suppressed religion throughout the Soviet Union—being blessed by Saint Matrona of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox saint, during World War II World War.

Activists and believers of the Orthodox Church as well as far-right groups are demanding that Perandze be prosecuted and imprisoned because, as they say, she committed an act that insulted their image and beliefs.